SURAT Basin producers are hopeful a decision by the Queensland Land Court to reject the expansion of the New Acland Mine due to groundwater impacts will finally see an end to unlimited water take for the mining industry in the Great Artesian Basin.
Last Wednesday the Queensland Land Court recommended against the approval of an expansion of the New Acland Mine near Toowoomba.
It was one of the largest environmental cases in the country’s history with about 40 community objectors challenging the expansion with evidence including water threats.
In a summary of the decision Land Court member Paul Smith said the expansion had the potential for groundwater impacts to adversely affect landholders in the vicinity of the mine for hundreds of years to come and was grounds enough to reject it.
Evidence put before the court found the modeling of faults and other groundwater studies to be inaccurate, leaving their hydrogeology experts discredited and Smith “highly concerned” at the “poor state” of the models.
“These issues have not been answered by the 2016 (Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development) Advice for reasons including the unfortunate fact that the IESC did not have the advantage of the material before the Court on groundwater,” Smith’s summary said.
Under the draft plan for unallocated water reserves in the Great Artesian Basin, 840ml is available in the Precipice aquifer general reserve in the Surat Management Area.
Petroleum and gas proponents water usage is covered separately, allowing them to have unlimited water take.
Water consultant Tom Crothers said the New Acland Mine decision was akin to the Mabo decision for indigenous land rights and could finally see a change to mining water allocations.
He said funding going into saving water through capping and piping bores was only going to the coal seam gas industry for nothing.
“Governments have been in denial for the last decade about the impacts of the coal seam gas industry on water resources out here in the Surat Basin and on the Great Artesian Basin as well,” he said at the Property Rights Australia bus trip.
“It’s really limiting the potential for expansion for the next decade, it’s chocking agriculture.
“I’ve been fighting (unlimited water take) for three and a half to four years and haven’t won the battle yet; I’m not going to give up.”
The draft plan was open for comment until April 17 this year with the current plan from 2006 due to expire on September 1.
Basin Sustainability Alliance chair Lee McNicholl said the court verdict was a landmark decision and protects Queenslanders’ underground water rights from unlimited take.
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
